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Watchwords

‘Moonlight’ from the Castaway series by Cindy Wider. ‘Red Wine and Cheese under the Moonlight.’ (Digital Painting) Artwork courtesy of Cindy Wider.

Artist Watch

The Artist

Cindy Wider (continued)

‘I
believe that until we spread our wings wide enough, we never know how far we can fly. Life is all about learning to spread our wings.'

Cindy was a finalist in the Wayne
Kratzmann Award in 2011, and as a result her artwork toured regional Queensland and was hung in the State Library of Queensland. The exhibition was curated by Michele Helmrich, Senior Curator at the University of Queensland Art Museum.

‘Rolling Hills of White Flat’ Exhibition

‘The
images included in my 2011 solo touring exhibition titled ‘Rolling Hills Of White Flat’ (exploring the reality and fantasy of life on the land from a feminine perspective), were created for the prestigious Outback
Regional Gallery at the Waltzing Matilda Centre, located in the outback town of Winton in the State of Queensland, Australia. See
details of this exhibition here.

‘The exhibition first began at The Cooper Gallery on Gympie Terrace, Noosaville (my local art agents in Queensland
at the time) then travelled to Winton and was shown at the Outback Regional Gallery Waltzing Matilda Centre. You can see a video of the open night here.’ [Note: beware of hordes
of colourful silly chickens in this exhibition – no chooks were harmed in the painting of this series.]

'Fire Paintings'

In 2009, while Cindy was researching for the ‘Rolling Hills of White Flat’ exhibition, she travelled to Port Lincoln in South Australia
to experience life on the land first hand. She stayed with family, and during that time she was evacuated from a massive bushfire that threatened the lives of all the people in the small city where she was staying. This affected her life dramatically and as
a result she decided to include bushfires in her work.

‘At first I was shocked but then I realised that it was my wish to fully and deeply understand
what it was like for my sister and women in general to live on the land in Australia. The experience of being evacuated from a bush fire is a way of life for them. They live with the fear of fires year after year. I admire these very brave men and women who
persist in living on the land in such isolation…so I began to paint these images.

‘The artworks were created using strands of my hair. I was
involved in a project ‘Artist by Artist’ with ABC Open and the Queensland Arts Council, and a documentary was made about my artwork in general.

‘In this documentary you can see the process I used for these works. See http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/27/3356118.htm.
I can’t make any more fire paintings at the moment; I need the space to throw paint around and I haven't got that here. [Besides which she could end up bald.]

‘In
summary, my work is my life purpose. It coincides beautifully with my hobby and I absolutely love every single day from the moment I get out of bed in the morning to the moment I go to sleep. I choose to see my cup as constantly full to over-flowing; it’s
a great world we live in! I feel as though I am living a privileged life and am so grateful for all that I have.

‘I believe that until we spread our
wings wide enough, we never know how far we can fly. Life is all about learning to spread our wings. Everything I do with art and writing overlaps and complements every other area of my life and, even though my life seems awfully busy, it’s not really
hard to keep it all happening – I just do what I love and do it a lot.’

For details about Cindy Wider’s original artworks that are currently available for sale in graphite, charcoal or acrylic on paper or canvas please contact Cindy by email on cindy@drawpj.com or phone her in the UK on +44 1274 985 974.

Update, June 2014 – artworks are now available for purchase
as prints on paper or canvas

For those who would like to license Cindy’s art, her representative
in the United States is Porterfield’s Fine Art Licensing who say: ‘Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing is delighted to be able to bring the beautiful original artwork of this remarkable artist to the world of commercial art licensing.’
Visit Cindy's pages on their website at http://www.porterfieldsfineart.com/CindyWider/cindywidermainpage.htm

‘A Shoe Well Travelled’ - Study by Cindy Wider. ‘Every shoe tells a story. This is the shoe that my husband wore when he returned to work at a university for a short period of time after our daughters were born, which confirmed for him that this type of work was not his ‘thing’ anymore: a shoe well-travelled in the concrete jungle corridors during this challenging time in his life.’ (Graphite on paper) Artwork courtesy of Cindy Wider.